# Racket v8.7 Release Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Internals\ **Tags:** release-management, dev\ **Created:** [October 2, 2022, 3:38pm UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/racket-v8-7-release-thread/1343 "2022-10-02T15:38:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 10
**Author:** ![elibarzilay](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/racket.discourse.group/elibarzilay/32/179_2.png) [@elibarzilay](https://racket.discourse.group/u/elibarzilay)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 1:06pm UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/racket-v8-7-release-thread/1343/10 "2022-11-03T13:06:23Z")
- Re your suggestion of not creating the tag until some testing, the original motivation for creating the tag as soon as the version is bumped (for releases) is to avoid a situation where there are two builds with the same version number that are not the same code, so there's no chance of confusion. There was even at some point a bit in the release where I faked the new version number so I can update things like screenshots (and some Shriram-related things too?). Probably mostly moot now. - The reason for the "alpha" releases were due to some big-ish changes that streched over a longer period (e.g., `369.100`). All of that is before "rc" was as common as it is now. (If that code is doing the same thing it did then it's probably crying out for attention.) - I have a vague memory of making up the format of `version.txt` instead of the older code which was some other filename. To change the format you can play the same game by making the code use some new `version.rktd` file with whatever's needed, and leave `version.txt` to point at the new version so there's no problem with older versions. - By some cosmic coincidence, I went over this branching approach in the last few weeks (due to $work), and implemented roughly the same strategy, automated via a github action. One thing that I've noticed (~two days ago) is that due to merges going only from `master` to `release` to `stable` but not the other way, GH shows `stable` as being way ahead of `master`. I figured that an improvement there would be exactly the kind of `-s ours` fake merge to avoid that confusion. --- _[View the full topic](https://racket.discourse.group/t/racket-v8-7-release-thread/1343)._